Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei responded on Wednesday (local time) to the killing of Ali Larijani, the country’s Supreme National Security Council, saying “criminals must soon pay for his blood,” Reuters reported.
Khamenei’s remarks came hours after Tehran confirmed the leader had been killed in Israeli airstrikes. Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had killed Larijani along with Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a volunteer paramilitary force.
Larijani’s killing marks an escalation in the war between the US, Israel and Iran, now in its third week. He was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike while visiting his daughter in the eastern suburbs of Tehran, according to a Reuters report.
Who was Ali Larijani?
Larijani, who was one of the most powerful figures in the Islamic Republic, was considered the architect of its security policy. He was a close adviser to former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei until he was killed in an airstrike last month. He belonged to a prominent clerical family whose brothers rose to higher positions after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Larijani was considered a shrewd and pragmatic figure, yet firmly committed to preserving the country’s theocratic system of governance.
He also served as commander of the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and soon became the head of Iran’s national broadcaster and went on to head the Supreme National Security Council, both before and after his stint in parliament, where he served as speaker for 12 years.
He was Iran’s most influential power broker, and his killing plunged the Islamic Republic into a precarious phase, further complicating decision-making in Tehran and limiting its options as the war rages.
Tehran is losing key leaders in the war
The US and Israel waged war against Iran in late February, targeting the country’s military and naval forces. In the past three weeks, Tehran has lost several of its top leaders, including its defense minister and intelligence minister. According to a Reuters report, Larijani was one of the first major Iranian figures to speak out after the strikes began in February, accusing Tehran’s attackers of trying to disintegrate and loot the country.
The ongoing war has plunged the Middle East region into a wider and renewed military confrontation, with Tehran attacking US military installations across the Middle East. The conflict further sent aviation and the global energy market into a tailspin, with oil prices hitting $120 a barrel last week before retreating, prompting the International Energy Agency (IEA) to step in to quell fears of supply disruptions. This comes after Tehran’s IRGC announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, days after the war broke out. The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman and is responsible for nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
